The main objective of the project Curricular Innovation Proposal for English Teacher Training, Based on the Development of Pedagogical and Specific Competences in the Universities del Bio Bio, Católica de la Santísima Concepción, and Católica de Temuco is to design an innovative curriculum proposal for the training of teachers from the listed institutions in the English Pedagogy major. This proposal is characterized by its curricular flexibility as well as the integration of pedagogical and English language training given the reality of Chilean schools. It also focuses on the development of competences based on national and international standards. The principal motivation is the necessity to respond to the contemporary challenges of professional training in order to improve the teaching of English in the Chilean school system.

The curricular innovations proposed by this project will take the form of the establishment of English language and pedagogical competences equivalent to the associated universities with the purpose of promoting student mobility; the establishment of a system of certification for the competences that promote individual student curricular advancement; the creation of an outline for pedagogical and disciplinary training; and the design of a monitoring system to guarantee the quality of the product and the satisfaction of the services.

To accomplish these objectives, it is necessary to: design diagnostics of linguistic competences upon entering the English Pedagogy major in the aforementioned universities; update the learning outcomes profile; design a pertinent, innovative curriculum; select national and international standards for the learning of English as a foreign language and initial teacher training; determine the necessities of human resources and materials for the implementation of the project; design a Mentoring Program to support Initial Teacher Training Program in schools; establish a teacher development and academic cooperation policy; and make the educative processes accountability by incorporating the opinions of the users.

At the end of the project a new curricular design for the English Pedagogy major for the listed universities and a plan for its implementation is expected. Validated diagnostic instruments will be set out, as well as a profile of desired skills, based on competences and benchmarks, for freshmen and graduate students, a Mentoring Program to support the pedagogical model, a protocol of student mobility based on the certification of English language and pedagogical competences, and a proposal for the evaluation of the training quality alongside the curriculum management model that will be strengthened by a plan of teacher development.

This project will optimize the human and material resources available in the associated universities and will impact on the replicability of the new curricular design and the generated instruments, as well as resulting in a highly satisfactory intra- and inter- university academic collaboration.